Alleged Victims Speak Up People Come Forward To Claim Abuse By Murdered Couple

Their accused killer’s lawyer says at least a halfdozen people have come forward claiming to be sexual victims of Ronald and Luella Bingham of Clarkston, Wash.

“The message is you’re safe now and you can talk about it,” Craig Mosman said Friday after a hearing in Nez Perce Magistrate Court for Kenneth D. Arrasmith of Sunnyside, Wash.

Arrasmith, 44, a former sheriff’s deputy in Washington’s Asotin County, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the slayings of Ronald Bingham, 47, and Luella Bingham, 42. They were shot to death May 17 outside a Lewiston automotive shop.

Magistrate Carl Kerrick set a June 9 preliminary hearing on the murder charges. A bail hearing was scheduled for Wednesday.

Several days before the slayings, Arrasmith apparently had gone to the Asotin County Sheriff’s Department with allegations that the Binghams molested his teenage daughter. That investigation was completed last week and turned over to Nez Perce County Prosecutor Denise Rosen.

The report is not being made public because it is part of the murder investigation, Rosen said.

Mosman would not discuss defense strategies for Arrasmith, but did say information about the Binghams’ past actions would come out at his trial.

The couple was charged in 1984 with raping their 16-year-old baby sitter. Ronald Bingham pleaded guilty to second-degree rape in exchange for the charge against his wife being dismissed. He served a year in prison.

Asotin County records also show the Binghams were charged in 1978 with second-degree statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl. The charges were dismissed after the girl’s father sent her to live in another state.

Friday’s hearing was hastily scheduled after Arrasmith waived extradition from Washington to Idaho on Thursday. He had been held at the Asotin County Jail in Clarkston since turning himself in there shortly after the shootings.

Arrasmith could face the death penalty if convicted.”We need your help,” he said. “We’re trying to save a man’s life.”